WACKY WEDNESDAY WISDOM: I Chased an Umpire Into the Locker Room, So What?

     It was not my proudest moment. As I raced past several of the college baseball players I coached at the time in pursuit of a terribly incompetent umpire bent on my team's demise, it never occurred to me what I would do if I caught him. I'm quite certain I would not have physically assaulted him in any manner, but I did want to continue the conversation we were having a few moments before. Actually there were three umpires, and to be honest, if I had to do it over again, I might do the same thing. Fortunately someone else was there who influenced my decision whether or not to continue forward.
     I'll get back to that in a moment. But first, I feel the need to share the details of a feature I watched on a sports television show recently. It was presented with a vein of humor, and I enjoyed every moment of it. It seems that on many college football sidelines, there exists an individual (normally a strength coach) whose sole purpose is to keep team members and staff from being on the field when they're not supposed to be. Apparently coaches and players alike are prone to run out onto the playing field and receive yellow flag penalties from zebra-striped referees when their emotions get the best of them.
     Known as the "Get Back Coach", he not only yells at everyone to "Get Back!" when they've exceeded their boundaries, as part of his duties he also physically pushes, restrains, or threatens potential offenders. Needless to say, the Get Back Coach is normally a physically imposing guy with little or no concern whether people like him or not. His job is not to be popular, his job is to hold players and coaches accountable.
     The feature I watched that day was unique in that it involved a Get Back Coach from a college football powerhouse whose Get Back responsibilities were confined to only one individual on the sidelines- the Defensive Coordinator, heretofore known as the DC. It seems this particular DC is the type who goes bananas throughout the game and is incapable of restraining himself. So this Get Back Coach shadows the DC the entire game and, based on the film footage shared during the feature, spends most of that time with his hand tugging the back of the DC's pants. Most games he winds up simply keeping his hand on the DC's belt loop instead of waiting for him to charge the field. The Get Back Coach guy was strong as an ox. He pulled the DC back onto the sidelines 30-40 times in that one featured game alone and every time, the DC was ticked off at the Get Back Coach for restraining him.
     Flash back many years ago to my confrontation with the umpire crew on that fateful day. My team was completely robbed of a well deserved victory and everybody there knew it, including the opposing coach and the umpires themselves. The lunacy occurred on the last play of the game and instead of winning as we should have if the rules had been applied properly, we were sent home in defeat. But not before I did my job (or overdid, depending on how you look at it) taking up for my team. I didn't curse, I didn't make physical contact, and I didn't spew personal attacks or saliva, but I did express my perspective in a rather aggressive manner. All was well until the umpires silently walked away without ever providing an explanation.
     So I just stood and watched as they neared the entrance to their locker room. At the last moment before they disappeared, one of them turned and said something extremely obnoxious to me. And I came unglued. I sprinted toward their locker room like a gazelle being pursued by a lion. But I never made it inside. By chance, one of my coaching friends from another sport had traveled with me to the game that day and happened to be nearby as the scene unfolded. In that moment, he became not only my friend, Christian brother, and accountability partner, he also became my Get Back Coach.
     As best I can remember, he intercepted me and picked me up off the ground, preventing me from going another inch further. I don't know what would have happened had I made it into the umpire locker room, and fortunately I'll never know. My Get Back Coach prevented me from acting out any further.
     Proverbs 27:17 says "Iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." We need people around us to hold us accountable. We need people who will be honest with us and not tell us what we want to hear. We need objective people in our lives who can set us straight when we're driven by temporary emotions. In short, we need Get Back Coaches in our lives. And we need them to be strong. To this day I have a group of strong men I can share with on a regular basis who are invaluable to me. And that same Get Back Coach from all those years ago is one of them.
     If I could relive that day on the field all over again, who knows, I might do the same thing. Perhaps I would voice my opinion in no uncertain terms and be the leader my players expect me to be. But the one thing I would certainly do is bring a Get Back Coach along with me on the bus. And I would make sure he was plenty strong.